Personality dimensions and substance use in individuals with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities
Section snippets
What this paper adds
Substance use is widespread among individuals with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities (MBID) and it has a more negative impact on both mental and physical health compared with nondisabled peers. Nevertheless, risk factors for substance use (disorders) in this group are understudied and there is an urgent need to develop and/or adapt substance use interventions. This study was the first to examine the role of personality dimensions in the (severity of) substance use in individuals with
Participants and procedure
Data were collected at three Dutch facilities for individuals with MBID and severe behavioral problems. The facilities offer care and treatment including sheltered living, educational and/or work and leisure activities. For the purpose of data collection, we used self-report questionnaires and information from case files of the participants. Self-reports were collected with a web application of an interactive questionnaire with pictograms and images on a tablet computer. Questions were read out
Descriptive statistics of substance use
The majority of the participants had ever used alcohol, and also lifetime use of cannabis and hard drugs was common (see Table 1). The average AUDIT score was 6.8 (SD = 7.2) and the average DUDIT score was 4.6 (SD = 7.3). There were no significant differences in lifetime and current substance use between participants with mild ID (IQ score 51–69) and those with borderline ID (IQ 70–85). Moreover, mean AUDIT and DUDIT scores were also not significantly different between participants with mild ID and
Discussion
The aim of this study was to examine the role of the four SURPS personality dimensions in (severity of) substance use in a sample of individuals with MBID. First, results of our study show that personality dimensions were not different between individuals with mild ID and those with borderline ID (Table 1). Compared to mean SURPS personality dimension scores in studies in individuals without MBID (i.e., Castellanos-Ryan, O'Leary-Barrett, Sully & Conrod, 2013; Mackinnon et al., 2014, Malmberg et
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution to the data collection of Silvana Franssen, Sanne Mertens, Merel Punt, Anne Smeulders, Danique Vanhees and Madelein Vrieling.
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